Another one, Another one, Another social media platform has emerged as the center of attention. Just about 4 years ago Snapchat was just the app where people shared dick pics with each other and now has over 100 million active users and with 7 billion daily video views. Snapchat currently has a valuation of about 16 - 19 billion dollars, which is close to the 22 billion dollars Facebook purchased Whatsapp for. Everyone seems to be talking about it now and I want to join in on the conversation. These are the major keys of why I think Snapchat is going to win, win, win.

Major Key 1 – Snapchat’s Audience is Aging Up/The Tipping Point

When Facebook began it started as a “Hot or Not” website on university campuses and has grown to become the establishment. Now everyone and their mother and grandmother is on Facebook, which is the result of "aging up" or the technical term diffusion of innovation. Teens are usually the early adopters to any social media platform and it just takes a "tipping point" for it to spread from the 16 year old girl to the middle aged accountant. The tipping point is happening right now with influencers starting to generate huge followings like DJ Khaled who gets 2 million views on each of his Snaps. The White House is even on Snapchat now, which is always a key indicator. Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the thought leaders in the industry, compares DJ Khaled on Snapchat now to the Ashton Kutcher moment for Twitter. Brands are now hopping on board too with Taco Bell, Huffington Post and Coca Cola etc. creating micro content on the platform.

Major Key 2 – People are Paying Attention

It is well known that marketers go where the attention goes and right now it’s quickly shifting to Snapchat especially from Twitter as it is losing its stickiness due to massive noise. What Snapchat has created is a platform where people are glued to their phones tuning out all other distractions because the content disappears within 24 hours. The scarcity of the content makes it more valuable and drives a sense of urgency to consume it right away. It’s almost like when e-mails had an open rate of 90% back in the late 90s.

“History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme" – Mark Twain

Major Key 3 – The Ability to Tell Stories

The story feature that they introduced in October 2013 grants the ability to create micro movies. Seth Godin preaches that humans are natural born storytellers and even make up stories or narratives when there isn’t one to make sense of things. Think back to Greek mythology where they explain all of earth’s natural cycles in vivid stories with characters like Helios and the sun.

When you go through stories on Snapchat it is like you are witnessing the story of someone’s life from their point of view, which is pretty cool. Brands are even telling their story to the world like Coca Cola who called upon help from a Snapchat film making studio called “A Cereal Production” to create micro-movies with the “share a coke” theme. This a great use of the platform as it is light-hearted content that adds to their already successful campaign and leaves people with a positive feeling, which will pay dividends in the long run. Marketing and branding is not a sprint it's a marathon.

Snapchat is just scratching the surface with their potential and I can see it becoming the top 2 or 3 social media platforms for a long time. Only time will tell but until then, bless up.